Learning from a lifetime of leading effective change.

Objective: The purpose of this article is to report on the opening plenary session of the Association of Chiropractic Colleges Educational Conference-Research Agenda Conference (ACC-RAC) 2014, "Aiming for Effective Change: Leadership in Chiropractic Education, Research and Clinical Practice."

Discussion: Speakers with extensive backgrounds with implementing substantial change on a broad level shared personal examples from their experiences in education, research, political organizations, and clinical practice. They described efforts, challenges, and opportunities that are encountered in order to implement effective change and shared their personal thoughts on leadership.

Effects of hawthorn on cardiac remodeling and left ventricular dysfunction after 1 month of pressure overload-induced cardiac hypertrophy in rats.

Purpose: Hawthorn (Crataegus) is a natural product used to treat patients with heart failure. The effects of hawthorn on cardiac remodeling, however, are not known. The purpose was to determine the effects of hawthorn treatment on remodeling and function of the left ventricle (LV) after 1 month of pressure overload-induced cardiac hypertrophy.

Chronic exercise improves myocardial inotropic reserve capacity through alpha1-adrenergic and protein kinase C-dependent effects in Senescent rats.

We have previously demonstrated that alpha(1)-adrenergic (AR)-mediated contraction is diminished in the senescent rat heart, in part due to alterations in protein kinase C (PKC) signaling. Since chronic exercise training (EX) can exert independent effects on increasing alpha(1)-AR contraction in the adult rat heart, we sought to determine whether age-related defects in alpha(1)-AR contraction could be reversed by chronic EX. We further hypothesized that improved alpha(1)-AR contraction by EX may be PKC dependent.